Sam
by The Girl from Shangri-La
Summary: Just a short story about Sam, given that he wasn't in the movie.


George Samuel Kirk skulked through the long shadows, a pack slung over his shoulder. He jumped the back fence of the farm and his feet hit the cold dirt of the ground with a thud. There was a rustling sound nearby the old, empty chicken coup. Sam froze where he was and waited. In the bright moonlight, he could see the shadow of a small, bundled up figure running over to him.

"Where ya been, Sam?"

"Aw hell, Jimmy." Sam sighed in a mixture of relief and annoyance. It was just his little brother. Jimmy had an inquisitive mind, and it was really getting to be a pain in the ass.

"Where ya been?" Jimmy asked again more forcefully. He was eight and Sam was eleven, and that meant that everything Sam did was cool, and if Jimmy wanted to be cool he was going to have to learn how to do it all the same way. But he never could get a hold of all the details.

"What are you doing out of bed? You've got a test in the morning." Sam ignored the question as he trekked up to the house. The lights were all off, and no sounds could be heard except the wind chimes knocking against each other in the midnight breeze.

"I know," Jimmy shook his head, "But it's just history. I probably _could_ do it in my sleep."

"Shuddup." Sam instructed him fondly as they made their way to the back door. He skipped the back step that squeaked, but rolled his eyes when Jimmy stepped right on it. The boy was not destined to become a master thief. Sam had a feeling the kid's destiny was in the stars, but in his young wisdom had decided not to tell anybody. Especially not Jimmy, who had a powerful love-hate relationship with Starfleet.

"Whoops." Jimmy shrugged and kept clumping along the porch, until he accidentally tripped and knocked Sam straight into the door. The house had been maintained in an archaic style, and so motion doors had never been put in. Everything was on hinges. Hinges that collapsed under Sam's weight, sending the whole door crashing down into the kitchen. There was no way Mom was going to sleep through that.

"Holy crap! Sam! Are you dead?"

"Ouch." Sam cringed, slowly getting off the door. He was pretty sure that he'd broken a bone and that he was about to get himself grounded for the rest of his life.

"Computer. Lights." Winona Kirk said urgently, and the kitchen illuminated revealing her eldest son sitting on top of the kitchen door. Which was on the floor. Jimmy was standing on the porch in his winter coat looking incredibly guilty. "Hi boys. Couldn't sleep?"

"Sam did it!" Jimmy confessed in a panic, pointing at his brother.

"Thanks, Judas." Sam quipped, standing up and dusting himself off. He winced in pain when he moved his left shoulder a little.

"Are you hurt?" Winona asked, making her way over to inspect him, "Did you break your collar bone again?"

"I think so. But don't worry about me, Jimmy must have stubbed his toe something wicked." Sam grumbled sarcastically while his mother pulled his jacket aside to get a better look at the injury. Jimmy hung his head and blushed with embarrassment.

"I better take you down to the doctor," Winona nodded, "Jimmy, go back to bed. You've got a test tomorrow. If we're not back by seven, replicate yourself some breakfast and call Mrs. Green to take you to school with Gordon."

"Gordon pinches me." Jimmy complained, making his way into the semi-demolished kitchen.

"Tell him not to." Winona answered in exasperated tones and grabbed her coat off of a peg on the wall. A peg that hung incredibly crooked next to an empty doorframe.

"I did!" Jimmy protested, "And I pinched him back and that didn't work either! There's gotta be a third option, but I don't know what it's supposed to be."

"Well, if you figure it out let me know." Winona said and pointed to the hallway, effectively sending her younger son to his room. She marched Sam down to the new car, which was really an old car they had bought at a Starfleet auction. There had been some hesitation at buying from Starfleet, but cheap cars were cheap cars.

Winona drove in silence down the country roads, glancing at Sam every now and then before finally asking him.

"What were you and Jimmy up to?"

"Jimmy wasn't up to anything. He was just trying to follow me, I guess." Sam sighed, looking out the window and watching the trees as they zipped past them.

"He looks up to you." Winona reminded him for the millionth time.

"Yeah. That's because he doesn't know how much better than me he really is."

"Sam!" His mother scolded him angrily.

"I don't mean anything much by it, Mom. But Jimmy's got something I'll never have, and I know it. He's just… I don't know. Like one of those _benevolent generals_ he's always blabbing on about, you know? He's got a great heart, and good head. I guess." Sam explained distantly.

"I know. But Sammy, you've got a great heart and a good head too."

"I was going out to do some pretty bad stuff tonight, Mom," Sam confessed, "Some of the older kids wanted me to come along and I said I would. But when I got there, I couldn't go through with it all. And it wasn't because of me. I thought it would be fun. Hell, I still think it would be fun. But I couldn't stand the idea of Jimmy finding out, and maybe trying to copy me."

"He's lucky to have you," Winona said with a crooked kind of smile, "And quit saying _hell so much. It makes me look bad."_

"You know, it's silly that I'd care so much about what Jimmy thinks about the world. He's bossy and good at school and he breaks everything. And he plays with girls. When I was eight, you couldn't pay me to play with girls…"

"Well, you'll have to teach him how to use all that to his advantage." Winona smiled as she pulled in to the tiny hospital parking lot.


End file.
